DBQ Spread of Buddhism WHAP/Napp

DBQ Spread of Buddhism WHAP/Napp

Rules for the DBQ on the College Board World History Advanced Placement Examination:

• Students will be allotted ten minutes for the mandatory reading of documents.
• During the reading period, students may take notes but not start writing the essay.

Strategies for the Document-Based Question:

• After the reading period, a student should write the essay in 40 minutes.
• Students should write the DBQ essay first (there are three essays).
• Students must incorporate all, or all but one, of the documents in the essay.
• Students must also comment on at least one OTHER type of document, NOT included, that might shed light on the question.
• Students must analyze point of view in documents.

Additional Strategies:

• Students cite documents by identifying the author and/or title of the document.

• For full credit, a student should analyze point of view for all or most of the documents.

• One of the skills a student MUST demonstrate is an ability to group documents into useful and meaningful categories.

• The thesis will clearly state the three groups the student has created.

~ Adapted from Barron’s World History AP

Questions:

1-How long is the mandatory reading period? ______

2-What may students do during the mandatory reading period? ______

3-What are students not allowed to do during the mandatory reading period? ______

4-After the reading period, students will have 120 minutes to write three essays, which essay should the student write first and why? ______

5-How many documents must the student incorporate into the DBQ essay? ______

6-What is the “missing document” or “other document”? ______

7-How do students cite documents? ______

8-What is point of view analysis? ______

9-For how many documents should a student analyze point of view? ______

10-How many groups should a student create? ______

From the 2004 College Board World History Examination:

The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-6.

Based on the following documents, analyze the responses to the spread of Buddhism in

China. What additional kind of document(s) would you need to evaluate the extent ofBuddhism’s appeal in China?

Historical Background: Buddhism, founded in India in the sixth century B.C.E., wasbrought to China by the first century C.E., gradually winning converts following thecollapse of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E. Buddhist influence continued to expand forseveral centuries. Between 220 C.E. and 570 C.E., China experienced a period ofpolitical instability and disunity. After 570 C.E., the imperial structure was restored.

Document 1

Source: According to Buddhist tradition, “The Four Noble Truths,” the first sermon preachedby the Buddha (563 B.C.E.-483 B.C.E.), India, fifth century B.C.E.

The First Noble Truth is the Noble Truth of Sorrow. Birth is sorrow, age is sorrow, disease issorrow, death is sorrow, contact with the unpleasant is sorrow, separation from the pleasant issorrow, every wish unfulfilled is sorrow.

The Second Noble Truth is the Noble Truth of the Arising of Sorrow; it arises from craving,which leads to rebirth, which brings delight and passion, and seeks pleasure—the craving forsensual pleasure, the craving for continued life, and the craving for power.

The Third Noble Truth is the Noble Truth of the Stopping of Sorrow. It is the completestopping of that craving, so that no passion remains, leaving it, being emancipated fromit, being released from it, giving no place to it.

The Fourth Noble Truth is the Noble Truth of the Way that Leads to the Stopping of Sorrow.

Document 2

Source: Zhi Dun, Chinese scholar, author, and confidant of Chinese aristocrats and highofficials during the period when northern China was invaded by central Asian steppe nomads,circa 350 C.E.

Whosoever in China, in this era of sensual pleasures, serves the Buddha and correctly observesthe commandments, who recites the Buddhist Scriptures, and who furthermore makes a vow tobe reborn without ever abandoning his sincere intention, will at the end of his life, when hissoul passes away, be miraculously transported thither. He will behold the Buddha and beenlightened in his spirit, and then he will enter Nirvana. *

*Nirvana: the extinction of desire and individual consciousness

Document 3

Source: Anonymous Chinese scholar, “The Disposition of Error,” China, circa 500 C.E.

Question: If Buddhism is the greatest and most venerable of ways, why did the great sages ofthe past and Confucius not practice it? In the Confucian Classics no one mentions it. Why,then, do you love the Way of the Buddha and rejoice in outlandish arts? Can the writings ofthe Buddha exceed the Classics and commentaries and beautify theaccomplishments of thesages?

Answer: All written works need not necessarily be the words of Confucius. To comparethe sages to the Buddha would be like comparing a white deer to a unicorn, or a swallow toa phoenix. The records and teachings of the Confucian classics do not contain everything.

Even if the Buddha is not mentioned in them, what occasion is there for suspicion?

Question: Now of happiness there is none greater than the continuation of one’s line, ofunfilial conduct there is none worse than childlessness. The monks forsake wives and children,reject property and wealth. Some do not marry all their lives.

Answer: Wives, children, and property are the luxuries of the world, but simple living andinaction are the wonders of the Way. The monk practices the Way and substitutes that forworldly pleasures. Heaccumulates goodness and wisdom in exchange for the joys of havinga wife and children.

Document 4

Source: Han Yu, leading Confucian scholar and official at the Tang imperial court, “Memorialon Buddhism,” 819 C.E.

Your servant begs leave to say that Buddhism is no more than a cult of the barbarian peoplesspread to China. It did not exist here in ancient times.

Now I hear that Your Majesty has ordered the community of monks to go to greet the fingerbone of the Buddha [a relic brought to China from India], and that Your Majesty will ascend atower to watch the procession as this relic is brought into the palace. If these practices are notstopped, and this relic of the Buddha is allowed to be carried from one temple to another, therewill be those in the crowd who will cut off their arms and mutilate their flesh in offering to theBuddha.

Now the Buddha was a man of the barbarians who did not speak Chinese and who woreclothes of a different fashion. The Buddha’s sayings contain nothing about our ancient kingsand the Buddha’s manner of dress did not conform to our laws; he understood neither theduties that bind sovereign and subject, nor the affections of father and son. If the Buddha werestill alive today and came to our court, Your Majesty might condescend to receive him, but hewould then be escorted to the borders of the nation, dismissed, and not allowed to delude themasses. How then, when he has long been dead, could the Buddha’s rotten bones, the foul andunlucky remains of his body, be rightly admitted to the palace? Confucius said: “Respectghosts and spirits, but keep them at a distance!” Your servant is deeply ashamed and begs thatthis bone from the Buddha be given to the proper authorities to be cast into fire and water, thatthis evil be rooted out, and later generations spared this delusion.

Document 5

Source: Zong Mi, a leading Buddhist scholar, favored by the Tang imperial household, essay,“On the Nature of Man,” early ninth century C.E.

Confucius, Laozi and the Buddha were perfect sages. They established their teachingsaccording to the demands of the age and the needs of various beings. They differ in theirapproaches in that they encourage the perfection of good deeds, punish wicked ones, andreward good ones; all three teachings lead to the creation of an orderly society and for thisthey must be observed with respect.

Document 6

Source: Tang Emperor Wu, Edict on Buddhism, 845 C.E.

We have heard that the Buddha was never spoken of before the Han dynasty; from then on thereligion of idols gradually came to prominence. So in this latter age Buddhism hastransmittedits strange ways and has spread like a luxuriant vine until it has poisoned the customs of ournation. Buddhism has spread to all the nine provinces of China; each day finds its monks andfollowers growing more numerous and its temples more lofty. Buddhism wears out thepeople’s strength, pilfers their wealth, causes people to abandon their lords and parents for thecompany of teachers, and severs man and wife with its monastic decrees. In destroying lawand injuring humankind indeed nothing surpasses this doctrine!

Now if even one man fails to work the fields, someone must go hungry; if one woman doesnot tend her silkworms, someone will go cold. At present there are an inestimable numberof monks and nuns in the empire, all of them waiting for the farmers to feed them and thesilkworms to clothe them while the Buddhist public temples and private chapels havereachedboundless numbers, sufficient to outshine the imperial palace itself.

Having thoroughly examined all earlier reports and consulted public opinion on all sides, thereno longer remains the slightest doubt in Our mind that this evil should be eradicated.

END OF PART A

Group the Documents Three Ways:

Write a Valid Thesis Statement for the DBQ: ______

Identify a missing document: ______

Write a body paragraph with point of view analysis on a separate piece of paper.